George Bush apparently didn't think much of Barack Obama as a candidate. “This is a dangerous world, and this cat isn’t remotely qualified to handle it," he's quoted in a new book as saying. "This guy has no clue, I promise you.” GQ has excerpts of Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor, by speechwriter Matt Latimer, in which Bush also dismisses Sarah Palin as a candidate and John McCain's campaign in general.
“This is a five-spiral crash, boys,” he tells his Oval Office compatriots. Of Palin, he joked, “What is she, the governor of Guam?” He turned charitable—“she’s interesting”—before making what Latimer calls a “smart assessment.” “This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for,” Bush said. “She hasn’t spent one day on the national level.” (More George W. Bush stories.)